Desperate Times
by Tango Eight
Summary: Gibbs and Tony have to take desperate measures to survive a potentially deadly situation.


Tony was busily trying to make the little blocks fit together on his cell phone, every once in a while shouting out annoying comments to McGee and Ziva, when Gibbs came down the stairs behind him.

"I told you if I caught you playing another stupid game on your ringer thing again, you would be looking for another job." Gibbs said as he rounded the corner, slapping DiNozzo on the back of his head on the way to his desk.

Tony quickly took his feet off his desk, and put the cell phone in the first drawer he could open. "Sorry, about that boss. Won't happen again." Tony apologized, hoping Gibbs wouldn't prove what the second B of his last name stood for.

"It better not." Gibbs replied looking at his computer screen. "And what did I tell you about apologizing?" Gibbs asked, sitting down.

"Sign of weakness." Tony answered, he sighed in relief when Gibbs phone rang.

"Gibbs." After a moment of listening to the voice at the other end of the line Gibbs hung up. "Navy SEAL had his car stolen. We have to get it back. Tony you're with me." Gibbs said as he stood up, retrieving his weapon and keys from his desk. He walked to the elevator without looking back.

Tony stood up with a nervous look on his face. "On it, boss." He said as he grabbed his own gear and walked across the bullpen toward the elevator. Ziva was looking at him with a smile. She chuckled, waving as Tony walked by following Gibbs.

The elevator ride was nearly silent. When they reached the ground floor they exited the elevator, left the building, and then walked down the long line of Dodge Chargers before finding the right one. Tony couldn't help but remember the time when he got into the wrong one with Ziva and McGee. He smirked slightly at the memory.

When they got into the car, they buckled their seatbelts before Gibbs started the car and then took off at his usual, breakneck speed. Tony was immediately assaulted with his usual nausea whenever he was in the same car as Gibbs, he really hated that he got carsick sometimes.

Tony ignored the queasy feeling and immediately took out his cell phone, dialing the familiar number to Abby's lab. She answered on the second ring.

"Hello, Abby Sciuto forensic scientist extraordin…"

"Abbs," Tony said into the phone before she could finish.

"What can I do for you?" Abby said happily, knowing he was in a car with Gibbs due to the choppiness of his voice. That could only mean they needed some sort of trace.

"Can you get a trace on a stolen car, Abby?" Tony asked.

"Do you even have to ask?" Abby replied. "Do you have the license plate number?" She added, getting her computer ready for the trace. Tony looked at Gibbs who handed him the piece of paper he had taken the message on when he received the call.

"Yeah, I have it right here. Are you ready?" He asked her, he could hear the faint clicking signifying she was getting ready to get a trace on the GPS in the car.

"Ready," She said, fingers ready.

"AFD634, Virginia plates." He said, reading the letters and numbers off of the note. "And it's a Pontiac g6 GT." He said for an added measure.

A few seconds later he heard a whoop of joy on Abby's end, Tony smiled to himself. "I got it, sending the GPS link to the one in your car." She said.

Tony reached in front of him and pushed the power button on the GPS connected to the dashboard in front of him. When it turned on he could see a little green dot, representing their car, and a little red dot showing the stolen vehicle. There was only one problem, the red dot was moving further away from them, and it was behind them in the opposite direction.

"Boss, we need to go the other way. Going North on Anacostia Freeway, looks like they came from Richmond." Tony informed his boss. Before he even finished he reached up and grabbed the handle above the passenger door in preparation of his boss's next move.

Gibbs barely slowed down when he quickly turned the wheel to the left. Tony felt his whole body tense when the car skidded across the other lane before the U shape was complete. Luckily, Tony thought to himself, it was a Tuesday at 0900 so there was hardly any traffic, none around them at least. Tony relaxed back into the seat as his body started to realize it was no longer in danger. He quickly tensed again, however, when the queasiness came back full force. Gibbs must have noticed the change in his agent's demeanor because he looked at him for a second before saying, "Don't even think about puking in this car."

Tony only nodded before he rolled down his window, unbuckled his seatbelt, and then leaned out the window immediately emptying the contents of his car sick stomach out onto the unsuspecting freeway.

Once the heaving stopped, he sat back down into his seat. Gibbs noticed the red tinting his agent's cheeks and realized he must have been embarrassed which didn't really make sense because that wasn't the first time the younger man had gotten car sick due to Gibbs' driving, or Ziva's for that matter.

"Ya gonna be ok?" Gibbs asked.

"Think so, boss. Sorry 'bout that." Tony winced, waiting for Gibbs to say something about his second apology in twenty minutes but the scolding never came. Gibbs was going to say something but decided not to chastise his agent.

Tony's cheeks flushed with embarrassment once again when he realized what he was holding in his ironclad grip. He brought the cell phone back to his ear only to hear Abby asking him if he was ok.

"Fine," He said. "Sorry, Abbs." She brushed off his apology just like Gibbs had just second before.

"Don't worry about it, Tony." She said. "Now, it looks like you guys should get to him in about half an hour if Gibbs stays at the speed he is going at now."

Precisely twenty-eight minutes later Tony was feeling much better. Not making crazy U-turns certainly helped. He and Gibbs had pretty much driven in silence the whole time. Tony was still slightly embarrassed about the….problem….he'd had so he was staying pretty discreet. This was slightly disconcerting to Gibbs who had expected endless movie reference the whole way. Gibbs was about to question his senior field agent when Tony sat up straighter in his seat and pointed out towards the distance.

They were on a long patch of the freeway, which was strangely deserted. The only car Gibbs could see was their stolen Pontiac g6 GT. They were only about a mile away from the other car when Gibbs put more pressure on the gas pedal. Tony looked over at the speedometer and inwardly cringed when the needle went up to sixty. As they got closer to the other speeding car, about a quarter of a mile away, Gibbs looked at Tony for a second.

"We need to stop him before we get around people." Tony didn't have to be told twice. He reached down to his side where he kept his weapon. Leaning out of the window he hadn't closed he gripped the handle of his gun with his right hand. He rested his hand, holding the gun, on the side mirror for support before firing once. The shot went wide as Gibbs hit a bump in the road. Tony aimed down a little more before firing again. This time, the shot did the trick. The navy blue car ahead of them jerked as the bullet made contact with the right hind wheel. This caused the car to swerve so it was sideways taking up both lanes, the passenger side facing the way Gibbs and Tony were coming.

Tony smiled slightly, still leaning out of the window he also missed Gibbs smile. Tony had always been an excellent shot, sometimes Gibbs forgot how excellent.

As they approached the idle car, Gibbs put his foot on the brake pressing down.

Nothing happened.

Gibbs put his foot to the floor. Still nothing happened.

"Ah, hell." Gibbs grumbled at the realization that the brakes were gone.

"What?" Tony asked, wondering why Gibbs wasn't slowing the car down as they approached the other car.

"The brakes are gone." Gibbs said, putting his foot to the floor again.

Tony could only look at him in shocked realization. The car thief must have realized something was wrong also because he quickly got out of the stolen vehicle and started running.

Giving up on the brakes after several more attempts to get them to work, Gibbs had an idea. He knew if they hit the car, there was very little chance of surviving; if they stayed in the car at all there was very little hope for surviving. That being said the only other solution was clear, and could also kill them, but was much less likely too.

Tony was thinking the same thing because he unbuckled his seatbelt again. Gibbs followed suit. They turned to face each other, if they were going to die, they wanted to at least say goodbye.

"We could die, ya know." Tony said with a mixture of both fear and excitement in his green eyes. "And if we don't, this is really gonna hurt." He added, always the optimist.

"Ya think, DiNozzo." Gibbs replied in his usual gruff tone. Not having very much time they both opened their doors. The whooshing of air was deafening as the car started to glide slightly so it was in the middle of the road, straddling the dotted lines. Looking back at each other one more time they both nodded to each other before taking their leap of faith; faith that this was the best decision.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, right?

Tony didn't have time to think anything but "Oh, shit" before he hit the unforgiving pavement. He rolled several times before coming to a stop. He lost all sense of reality when his head hit the blacktop and he lay in a motionless heap on the side of the road, unconscious.

Gibbs landing was no softer then Tony's. He too rolled, relentlessly, before stopping. He was laying on his side, facing the two cars both unoccupied but one moving ever so quickly towards the other. He watched in silent horror as their Charger rammed full speed into the Pontiac. The Pontiac served as pretty good brakes for their vehicle. As soon as the two cars made contact they skidded together down the road before they both went still. Gibbs couldn't see it but the front of the Charger was completely crushed in almost to the back seat. There was no way either of them could have survived if they had stayed in the car.

As soon as the crunching of metal was silenced Gibbs started to feel the after effects of jumping out of a car on the freeway. He looked down at his shredded, bloody clothing taking stock of his injured body. He realized he must have hit his head because he had a splitting headache and his vision was fuzzy. He could move so he didn't have any spinal injuries. His arms, legs, and torso were a mess of scrapes and bruises and he knew he at least had some broken ribs. Luckily, he seemed relatively ok. He soon remembered his passenger.

He groaned as he pushed himself into a sitting position with shaky arms. It took a moment for his head to stop spinning, when it did he looked over to the other side of the street and recognized the still form of his senior field agent only about twenty feet away.

The only problem was Tony wasn't moving.

Gibbs had been hoping Tony would be up and about complaining about his injuries instead of lying in a heap at the side of the road. Panic clawed its way through Gibbs' battered chest when he realized he didn't even know if the younger man was alive or not.

As quickly as his body would allow, Gibbs stood up. He managed to stumble over to Tony in less time then he thought it would take. When he reached the supine agent the first thing he noticed was the blood.

Tony was lying half on his side, half on his stomach. His right leg was straight, with his left up so his left foot was by his right knee. His right arm was stretched above his head and bend at an odd angle from the shoulder. His left arm was parallel to his torso, his hand resting on the ground by his face which was turned to the left.

At first, Gibbs couldn't see any movement at all. Not even the rise and fall of his chest, signifying he was at least still breathing. The panic he had felt only moments earlier was nothing compared to what he felt in that moment. He bent down next to his agent, placing two fingers just below Tony's jaw on his neck to check for a pulse. He sighed in relief when he felt a strong, steady beat beneath his fingers. He moved his hand in front of Tony's mouth to check for any indication that the younger man was indeed still breathing. Relief replaced fear once again when he felt the slight warm air on his hand.

He reached over and shook Tony's left arm, the arm that appeared to be fine, unlike the right which looked very much dislocated, if not broken.

"Tony," Gibbs tried, when he got no response he tried again. "DiNozzo," Gibbs tried to shout in his usual way but found out his body wasn't up for that so it came out slightly weaker than normal. Gibbs waited a moment and was about to say it again when he heard a groan from the man on the ground.

"DiNozzo, ya with me?" Gibbs asked waiting for Tony to open his eyes.

"I'm with ya, boss." Came Tony's quiet reply, he had yet to open his eyes, though. "Are we dead?" He asked cracking his eyes open slowly.

"Whattya think, DiNozzo?" Gibbs said, smirking slightly, very much relieved neither of them was. They had tempted fate and lived, it was not something Gibbs was going to take for granted and neither was Tony.

"Can't be. Wouldn't hurt this much if we were." Tony replied. Gibbs looked at his agent with concern.

"Where are ya hurt, Tony?" Gibbs asked, genuinely concerned his agents injuries were worse than he first thought. Tony took a second to do a once over of his own body before answering.

"Head, ribs, shoulder." Tony listed. Gibbs looked at his agent more closely. Tony must have hit his head pretty good because there was a cut on the side of his head bleeding heavily. He knew head wounds usually did that but it was still disconcerting. Just like with Gibbs, Tony's whole body was a mess of cuts and bruises. There was blood seeping out of various spots of his tattered clothing.

"You all right to move, I want to check on your shoulder?" Gibbs asked he didn't like the looks of his shoulder and wanted to see if he could do anything about it; it had to hurt like hell.

"Yeah, I think so." Tony said attempting to push himself into a sitting position with only one arm. Gibbs reached down and helped the struggling agent.

Once Tony was situated in a sitting position Gibbs reached out to inspect the injured shoulder. The instant he touched it he felt a shudder go through the younger man, followed by a hiss of pain.

"Sorry." Gibbs said, wincing in sympathy.

"I thought apologizing was a sign of weakness?" Tony replied pain evident in his voice but it was clear he was trying like hell to not let it show.

"Not between friends." Was Gibbs' absentminded reply as he continued his inspection. After several painstaking minutes and after quite a few more hisses of pain from Tony, Gibbs finally felt comfortable enough to say with complete certainty that the shoulder was severely dislocated. After gaining silent permission from Tony to do what he needed to do, Gibbs positioned himself on Tony's right side. He took Tony's bicep in his left hand and his forearm in his right hand. Looking at Tony with a mute apology he started to move Tony's forearm so it was perpendicular to his body. Then in one swift movement he pushed Tony's arm towards his body, hearing the pop as the joint went back into place.

Tony made no noise during the setting but his eyes were tightly shut, his face set in a grimace, when one more shudder went through his body when he heard the pop.

Gibbs waited several second as Tony got control of his body enough to speak. He opened his mouth to say something which turned into a slight giggle. Tony opened his eyes to look at Gibbs and started to laugh harder.

Gibbs could only look at Tony in confusion as he waited for the younger man to get his breathing under control. When he was finally able to speak Tony look at Gibbs and said,

"You know boss, this reminds me of a movie."

THE END

It is very late right now, and I am super tired, so I don't know how good this is. Plus also I haven't really proofread it so I apologize for any mistakes. With this story please widen your suspension of disbelief because I honestly don't think anybody could survive a jump from a car onto a freeway going sixty miles per hour. Plus also, I don't really have a movie in mind; I just wanted to end the story like that. I guess Live Free or Die Hard (which is an awesome movie!) Please review and let me know what you thought, but please remember this is fan FICTION! =) Thanks!

Disclaimer: As always I do not own NCIS….


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